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I find it difficult to understand the callous disregard which people have for the victims of Katrina. Nobody except Americans seem to be even talking about it, let alone doing anything about it. Surely all you lefties aren't blaming the residents of New Orleans, Biloxi,* etc. for The Great Satan? And what about all you RWDBs? Shouldn't you be racking up the points with Head Office?
Australians still tell war stories about Tracy**; imagine if Tracy spent Christmas in Sydney or Melbourne instead - that's the level of destruction the Sepps are looking at.
The link at the top of the page, which will be staying there for a while, is for The Salvo's in America. They'll take Orstrayan credit cards, though, so bust 'em out.
*As a fan of Blues- and to a lesser extent, Zydeco- and Cajun- music, I find the location of the destruction particularly upsetting. I'm going to spend quite a deal of time in that area before I die.
**I know a bloke who got on the grog and slept through Tracy. Woke up on the couch and the roof of his house was gone.
Update: Even the Sri Lankan gubment found a lazy $25,000 to help out. Whaddya got scorpions in your wallet?
Up-Update: Check this out.
Australians still tell war stories about Tracy**; imagine if Tracy spent Christmas in Sydney or Melbourne instead - that's the level of destruction the Sepps are looking at.
The link at the top of the page, which will be staying there for a while, is for The Salvo's in America. They'll take Orstrayan credit cards, though, so bust 'em out.
*As a fan of Blues- and to a lesser extent, Zydeco- and Cajun- music, I find the location of the destruction particularly upsetting. I'm going to spend quite a deal of time in that area before I die.
**I know a bloke who got on the grog and slept through Tracy. Woke up on the couch and the roof of his house was gone.
Update: Even the Sri Lankan gubment found a lazy $25,000 to help out. Whaddya got scorpions in your wallet?
Up-Update: Check this out.
posted by Dirk at 2:35 am
12 Comments:
Aw shucks Scott, 'twarn't nuthin'.
Literally. I mean, I flexed the plastic, but I don't feel like I achieved much. In a sense I envy you, being in a position to offer direct, practical assistance. The fact that you and others like you are willing and able to do this makes me all warm and gooey inside. (In a strictly heterosexual, masculine, Rough, Tough Outback Bloke™ kind of way.
Sheriff,
I've had a similar time here. Those people make me really angry.
What they really need is large quantaties of VB, Cooper's & XXXX...
Send them to: Ranger Tom, Athens, West Virgina.
I'll make sure it gets to the proper place!
Jokes aside, thanks for thinking of us. Looking at the news pages outside of the US, nothing much is being said at all, except for one blurb on the BBC homepage... "Lawlessness, rape & looting in New Orleans..."
The American Red Cross could use a little help too... Donate blood if you can.
You are such a sweetheart Dirk.
There was a lady on the radio today who had the gross mistaste to bitch about "all them refugees" coming to 'her' town, using 'her town's gas.' I'm wondering when it became 'hers' to being with?! Even our town is out of generators, and I'm a several hours north of Atlanta. It's nice to know that SOME PEOPLE outside the US are thinking of my fellow citizens....
Ranger,
funny you should mention Cooper's; it's the last family owned brewery in Australia and is currently under siege by Lion-Nathan, tthe (originally Un Zud) company that owns XXXX, Tooheys, Heinekin, Becks, Kirin and the vastly overrated Steinlager. I hope Cooper's win - I like the idea of a traditional family-owned brewery.
Don't know about donating blood..., it might be a little stale by the time it gets there. The envelope would probably leak, too. Of course, I could always deliver it personally.
You are such a sweetheart Dirk.
Tell that to the kittens I torture.
G'day. I have a few things to say. Firstly, I'm a born-and-bred Darwinite, my family lost everything in Cyclone Tracey. The Australian people were extrememly generous in the aftermath - they gave and gave. However, the nett result to the people of Darwin was a $200 cheque per family, ten months after. There were probably many other things that this money went towards, but my family had to personally replace everything (before the ten months time lapse) and we were one of the families who stayed and decided to keep making a go of things there. Many families left.
Yes there was looting, and some lawlessness. There are a number of urban myths about what actually happened on the streets of Darwin once most of the populace was evacuated. However, there was not the kind of chaos and hysteria that is happening in the US at the moment. The vast majority of the Darwin population was evacuated without fuss within a week, (over distances of thousands of kilometres)and people got on with things. This was funded by the federal government, as was most of the rebuilding.
Like many others, I dont think much of George Bush. Does this sway my view of Americans? Slightly. They did vote him in. Do you know how slow the United States was to donate anything to the Tsunami appeal? At one point their donation was less than that of some third world countries. And yet here it is, something similar, happening in their own back yard. The country that preaches to the rest of the world about the "American Way" is not coping in any "Way" whatsoever. I find it extrememly ironic. I dont think throwing money at a situation helps. I have read recent reports that none of the millions and millions of dollars raised in the Tsunami appeal has reached the Aceh province at all.
Edna, 24 hours after the Tsunami hit last December, George Bush pledged $500 MILLION to the relief, and when all was said and done, including the US Navy help and all, the total was three-quarters of a BILLION dollars in Tsunami relief.
Less that some "Third-World" nations donated?
Spare me.
Japan was the only other nation that even came close to the US's donations... And the rest fell way behind.
Dirk, sorry. I had to correct that.
Edna,
Whilst I feel sympathy for the difficulty your family went through in 1974, the two events are not really in the same league as each other. Tracy came, clew down all the Christmas trees and left. The roads were still usable and it was not long before the airport was usable. Out of the official population of 43,000 at the time, roughly 60% were made homeless and 64 people died (officially, anyway). You could have fitted the homeless from Darwin into the Superdome, where the death toll was probably higher.
Measured in either outright numbers or percentages, Katrina has had many times the effect that Tracy had.
However, there was not the kind of chaos and hysteria that is happening in the US at the moment.
Nor were the TV cameras. I have been told some stories from Tracy survivors that do not gel with your position.
I dont think throwing money at a situation helps.
What would help - in this situation?
I have read recent reports that none of the millions and millions of dollars raised in the Tsunami appeal has reached the Aceh province at all.
Got any references, I'd like to read those reports.
Ranger,
correct away, 'cause I'm about to correct you...,
Japan was the only other nation that even came close to the US's donations... And the rest fell way behind.
Doesn't the $1b Australia pledged to Indonesia in the week following the Tsunami count?
Ranger Tom, I must correct you also. Please read my comment - I said they were slow to react. Their initial donation was US$35 million, until there was some outcry of the stinginess of this offer, and the larger pledge was certainly not made within 24 hours of the tsunami happening
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/01724/relief_donations.html
Yes, eventually the USA did donate as much as Australia did. And good on them.http://www.powerpundit.com/archive/powell_worried_about_overdoing_it_on_tsuname_relief.php
I'm just saying they were slow, and their initial donation was less than some much poorer countries.
As for the aid money not reaching Aceh, I stand corrected and am not ashamed to say so - my apologies. I have re-read the reports and am humiliated to say that it is Australian aid money that is not making it's way to Aceh, due to it being available in soft-interest loans and being used for other education programmes accross Indonesia.http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1441971.htm
Again, I stand corrected...
:)
Give Yanks a break.
He didn't get the majority of the vote in 2000, but squeaked by on a technicality.
He barely won (Mr. Popular WarTime Security President!!) in 2004.
At this point, more Americans despise him than love him. But we're stuck with the inefficient, vacations-like-a-Frenchman jerky.
Thanks for the post about Katrina. Most Americans are so numb that we can't write or talk about it.
Mostly, we just drink, smoke weed, curse the President, watch television, donate, pray, and believe that New Orleans will rise again.
Oh, and cry. I've never seen so many grown men cry in my lifetime, 9/11 included.
We're destroyed over here. Please cut us just a bit of slack, and do know that we're coming around.
Shows you how much we Yanks know.
I googled Cyclone Tracy, and, good gravy, she was a bitch of the highest order.
And on Christmas Day, no less.
That's just plain cruel.
The worst was yet to come: Whitebread MOR cabaret duo 'Bill and Boyd' released a single entitled "Santa never made it to Darwin." They could teach Alan Jackson a thing or two about leveraging your career on a tragedy.
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